Session 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOnABvJWS30 Midnight Smoke After escaping the cave, we took a long rest outside the mouth of the cave. During watch with El, she noticed a black puff of smoke in the distance across the river (~25 feet away). El wakes up Krell and tells him to keep watch while she goes to investigate. She crosses the river to investigate, and near a bush she finds a mirror similar to Tofu's. However, this one is covered in blood on the edges and is not shattered like Tofu's. She notes the location, and then leaves to get Tofu. Tofu awakens at the mention of the weird mirror, and then goes with El. Tofu casts detect magic and notices an ancient magical essence that he recognizes. Looking into the mirror, Tofu sees just a normal reflection. Tofu unable to identify the type of blood that coats the mirror. Tofu puts some blood in a vial and stores it, and then heads back to camp. Upon seeing their return, Krell inquires as the what the heck did they find. They wave off his inquires, and Krell just kinda shrugs and doesn't push for more info.\ The rest of the night passes peacefully, and the Birch Bitches awaken to a nice calm sunny morning. Back to Ereyn Krell takes a bath, Voila does her make up, Zephyr reads his book, and El and Ssera also take a bath. After this, we head back to town. Upon approaching the town, we see that the refugee camp at the front of the gates has disappeared. Voila investigates the area, and notices some wagon trails that lead out towards Edge. As we go towards the front gate, we see the guards out front are very jovial. They are happy the refugees left. We tell them that we killed the mosslings and some weird creature, and he arranges a meeting with Sigfird (the first captain) so we can tell him of our findings. We follow the guards through the streets to a nicer area of town until we reach a large three story house (that seems more church-like than home-like). We are lead into the building and in a large lavish chamber. At a table sits an older bearded man and several others who appear to be advisors. There are some people standing in front of the table, and then exiting. It seems that they were having a meeting of some kind. Voila saunters forward to the table, and respectively bows to the table. Ta'ldorin (advisor) then speaks, and Voila recognizes that his accent means he is from the same area she is. Voila tells Ta'ldorin of our cave shenanigans. Ta'ldorin says he is grateful for our help at this "time of need" as their forces are currently spread thin. Voila asks about the dead people we found in the cave and how we could identify the bodies. Ta'ldorin says that the only local member that had gone missing was a Ms. Sanford - a few weeks ago. Based off of the description, she fits the description of the body we found in the cave. They all seem uncomfortable to hear that we found her dead. When asked who she was, it is revealed that she was Sanford's fiance. Everyone assumed that she left because she had a fight with Sanford, and they are sad to hear she is dead. Voila asks how we can find Sanford, and we are directed to a tavern - the Lethargic Tyrant. As we are about to leave, Voila asks if they knew anything about the monster. He says no, but is intrigued by it. We don't sense he is lying, but he clearly is holding some information back. Tofu pulls out a shard of his mirror as well as the blood mirror and looks for inconsistencies. Ta'ldorin gives Voila a weird look and asks if he has ever met her before. She is dismissive and awkward. Sigfird offers us one night stay in the manor house. We accept the offer. There are apparently no libraries or magic experts in town we can consult. After this last inquiry, we all leave. Shoppin Time! Tofu wanders away, deep in thought. We head towards a nearby park, and sit Tofu on a bench. We discuss what we want to do. The Best Blacksmith El and Krell goes to the blacksmith to purchase a double bladed scimitar. However, the blacksmith in town is super shit and is stupid as fuck (he can't even make a cup). El is redirected to a blacksmith several towns over. Pretty Wizard Voila drags Zephyr to the tailor: Strings Attached. It is the nicest building we have seen thus far. There, we encounter the luxurious Zesty. She takes Zephyr's hat and offers to spruce it up for a discount, while Voila browses. Voila requests for Zesty to mend the ripped expensive clothes she carries. In exchange for all of this, Voila and Zephyr agree to do a favor in the future. They are then redirected to Javier the salon. Voila then goes the salon, and then Zephyr goes to the bookstore with Krell. Javier is as exuberant as Zesty, and charges 1 gp for a makeover. Child Stories At the bookstore, we don't find anything much. Zephyr buys a book on Arthur - a legendary historical mage who had adventures (15 gp). Krell also finds a book on local monsters (5 gp). Arbor brings out his book of human flesh, which prompts Reginald to call guards. Zephyr and Arbor abscond. Krell stays behind and chills. The guards don't believe Reginald when he describes Arbor, and all is okay. Zesty Time Meanwhile at the salon, Voila presses for information. She learns that the Lord basically came from out of town and bought his way into power. As for Sanford and his late fiance, she discovers that after having a huge fight, the woman ran into the woods. However, V is unable to learn more about the nature of the fight. After this, V leaves to find the rest of the group. She notices Arbor and Zephyr running, and promptly ignores them and heads to the Lethargic Tyrant Park Reflections Tofu has been sitting in the park this whole time, thinking about both his mirror, and the mirror that was found. He feels he has bits and pieces of the puzzle, but can't quite put it all together. He then goes walking through town and finds a man selling some bracers. El El and Ssera see Arbor and Zephyr and approaches them. Inquiring into why they are running, El discovers Arbors flesh book. She suggests that he put it away, and then they all head towards the tavern Lethargic Tyrant Voila and Tofu enter the bar, shortly followed by El, Ssera, Zephyr, and Arbor. Voila notices Doyle and the bar, and approaches. El buys him a drink. Voila tells Doyle that we found Serina dead. He looks up and is furious. Standing, he demands for more information. Accusing Voila and El of murder, he draws his shortsword. El tries to talk him down, but fails. He swings his blade at Voila, slashing her newly mended clothes. Voila tries to talk him down again. He grabs the ring from Voila, and tells her to leave him be. Voila walks away and changes...again. The Magic Vendor We then all regroup at the manor and share information, and Tofu leads us to the magic vendor. He is selling a variety of magical items, including several spell scrolls. When asked if he had more spells, he directed the group to the Arcanium in Edge. Arbor tries to inquire again about his book, but thanks to V and Zephyr, is dragged away before saying anything too creepy. Tofu tries to haggle for a misty step scroll, but sucks. Voila is able to buy both the scroll of misty step for Tofu and acid arrow for Zephyr. We then all head back to the manor, while Tofu mends Voila's robes and then Arbor's flesh book. The Manor and Dinner Upon arrival, Ta'ldorin greets us. We are lead to a room with a long table laden with food. In the room, there is Tydel, Boyar and Lucenia Mayard, Sigfird Mayard (sitting far from his parents), Tidel, Doyle (awkward), a few local wealthy people, and the other advisor from earlier. Suddenly, some dancers enter the chamber and do some kicking dance. We then sit at the table, and we are served food. V pushes to find why they are curious about the cavern. They mostly are curious about the crystal, and want to dig it up. Ta'ldorin reveals that he is also trained in the arcane. Zephyr presses for more information about his arcane studies. Ta'ldorin reveals that he has seen creatures with crystals similar to the being we saw in the cave. In order to learn more about this, he studied at the Arcanium in Edge. However, when pushed for what he knew about the crystals, he drew back and the subject was dropped. Krell asks about the conflict with the Hoard and the bandits on the way to Greywald. Ta'ldorin/The Lord offers 500 gp a month as well as transport in exchange for the information they learn. They ask for the night to think about it. They feel like Ta'ldorin is keeping information to himself... Huddle Up Team V is left a note asking if she wants to meet with Ta'ldorin for the night ";)". While this is happening, Tofu transformed himself into a weasel and Zephyr uses Lumen's senses (in his spider form) to investigate the hall and room. A servant leads V to a room on the second floor. It is revealed that Ta'ldorin is making the servants in the area fall asleep. V enters the room (lit by candles), kicks off the spider, and investigates. Ta'ldorin greets her, but she can't see him. V sees a large locked bookcase filled with books. Ta'ldorin emerges from the shadows, dressed all fancy. After some flirty talk, V moves to the bookshelf. Tofu and Zephyr see a locked box in the shelf, labeled "Corrupted". Lumen/Zephyr are able to see into the box's keyhole and see several scrolls as well as a large, fist sized crystal. Ta'ldorin recognizes V, and is surprised to see her traveling considering her noble standing. Zephyr casts "Message" and tells V to tell him to try and get this box out. V manages to get him to take his box out, and he admits that the box is where he stores his magic research. However, he plays coy and says there are no magic stones stored in there. After enduring all this disgusting flirting, V is able to make excuses and leave the room with Tofu, while Lumen/Zephyr stays behind. Shortly after V leaves, Ta'ldorin calls out to Lumen and looks right at him. Looking up, Lumen sees on the ceiling a glowing red arcane glyph to signal when an intruder enters the room. Zephyr is then cast out of Lumen's body. Zephyr poofs Lumen away, and then tells the others what happened. After a moment of discussion, the group takes a long rest The Next Day After breakfast, we are promptly kicked out of the mansion. Ta'ldorin greets us and wishes us good luck. He seems devastated that V rejected him. He says that he procured horses for us, as well as some rations for travel. However, until the Lords see progress they can't offer us more. V leaves him a forget-me-not flower, and gives him a bardic inspiration and a wink. He waves us off. With this final farewell, we make our way towards Greywald.